Cabinet probes colliery cover-up

Source: Shanghai Daily  |   2008-10-27  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

CHINA'S State Council, or the Cabinet, yesterday set up a special team to investigate the cover-up of a notorious coal-mine explosion in northern China that killed 35 people.

The Cabinet said 63 people suspected in the cover-up were under investigation.

State television CCTV reported yesterday that colliery owners destroyed the bodies of those who died in the July 14accident and hid other evidence of the blast at the Lijiawa Coal Mine in Yuxian County of Hebei Province.

The owners and some county officials also attempted to keep victims' relatives and journalists quiet by paying them off or threatening them, CCTV said.

The blast came to light after witnesses and victims' families filed complaints and posted accounts of the explosion online.

The accident was first reported on October 7 after a government investigation.

"The investigation has showed that a number of officials from the township and county were involved in the cover-up," Peng Jianxun, deputy head of the State Administration of Coal Mine Safety, told CCTV.

So far 25 officials have been sacked over the cover-up and 22 of them prosecuted, Xinhua news agency reported yesterday.

Police had also detained the mine's owners, three brothers named Li Chengkui, Li Xiangkui and Li Fakui, Xinhua said.

According to CCTV, the head of the county and the leader of the county's Communist Party Committee have been fired.

Peng, who heads the Cabinet inquiry team, said it would further investigate the accident and hand over suspects to police.

It would work out measures to prevent similar accidents and submit a report to the Cabinet, he said.

The results of the investigation would be publicized after the Cabinet approved the report, Peng said.